States Believe Judge Vinson’s Intent Was to Stop Implementation of Health Care Reform

The states are in a bit of a bind regarding the implementation of the Health Care Reform law. The states will have a lot of work to do between now and 2014 regarding implementation. If they choose not to proceed with implementation, HHS will step in to do the implementation work for them (and the state may like this less than doing it themselves). Additionally, there is a Court Order out of Florida declaring the law unconstitutional (it will likely take a full year for the Supreme Court to weigh in on this) and a Republican Congress which is trying to defund HHS and the IRS (who have been an a massive hiring spree) to impede implementation.

Health reform is coming and we may as well be ready. Some states like Maryland (and others not in the gang of 26) are proceeding full speed ahead and will implement it anyway, even if repeal at Federal level holds up.

Frankly, seniors are thus far making out pretty nicely in my view, despite the defunding from Medicare Advantage. Those dollars didn’t disappear from seniors from what I can tell, but got redirected into Medicare wellness benefits.

I try to reassure seniors not to worry…..something I think very important in our work with them.